SHOW of the Week: 10 Corso Como, A Yohji Yamamoto Conversation

After reopening in February, the Galleria inside Milano retail temple 10 Corso Como is being stripped again, this time metaphorically, to its bare essentials. For 10 Corso Como owner Tiziana Fausti, alongside curator Alessio de Navasques, have taken on the Yohji Yamamoto archive to find a future fluency that resonates within contemporary notions around clothing, the body and society.

Letter to the Future rejiggs the language of Yohji Yamamoto womenswear by way of a precisely poetic examination of how Yamamoto observed womens’ work by observing impressive women like his mother, his totemic creative director Irene Silvagi and also his former partner Rei Kawakubo. You can not encounter such a remarkable — and remarkably unyielding — trio without leaving an impactful philosophy in fashion. Fausti and de Navasques found their exhibition’s statement by looking at the universal language that enhanced a legion of ardor towards Yohji Yamamoto’s masterful, master-filled clothes. And what they discovered became their proposal. ‘It is an honor to have the unique opportunity to host a project by Yohji Yamamoto that is forward-looking, vibrant on the contemporary and dedicated to the younger generation,’ Fausti says. ‘It is significant for us that he is in Milan and precisely in 10 Corso Como, where he was one of the seminal authors in defining its avant-garde and research identity.'

This itinerant fashion ‘research’ identity saw Yohji Yamamoto tackle post-war, threadbare Japanese elegance; basque interiors recomposed onto clothing surfaces; draped coats with the flourish of cursive wedding calligraphy; and the Yohji 90s — Western dress investigations of Christian Dior, Madeleine Vionnet, Gabrielle Chanel and Cristobal Balenciaga. Yamamoto bustles and crinolines that gesticulate like set designs in a Tim Burton forest are 20th century fashion legend. He created schisms in time periods by making dresses in opposition to their contemporary periods. This allows his clothes to be described as time-less and — since whoever reading this is not a complete fashion moron — timeless.

Stringing together a conversation between Yohji Yamamoto’s ‘time-less,’ timeless work frames the poetry and precision in Alessio de Navasques’ exhibition for 10 Corso Como. He found meaning in Yamamoto codes that replicate across decades: the white, black and red colours of Yohji. In Yamamoto womenswear, these signals convey a varied compendium of elegance, solemnity, desire, gleefulness, sensuality and rebellion, depending on the season, era or lifetime. ‘Letter to the Future’ rewrites the Yamamoto philosophy to examine signatures that, de Navasques believes, communicate fluidly a level of futurism throughout Yamamoto’s history as a dressmaker.

What follows is a conversation, maybe a slight interrogation, with Alessio de Navasques about the bodies of evidence 10 Corso Como will unveil tomorrow.

M-C Hill: We got the information weeks ago about the exhibit from 10 Corso Como. We were thinking about a quick news announcement, but then my editor Hetty asks, ‘Do you want to talk to Alessio?’ I was like, ‘YES!’ It is a genuine love affair with Yohji Pour Homme and his work always. So it is nice that you're doing this exhibition.

Alessio de Navasques: Yes, also it is the first exhibition after, I think, 14 years. The last one was at the V&A.

M-C Hill: How did it all come together? What was the idea? Was it you or Tiziana?

AdN: The idea started in rethinking this cultural program of 10 Corso Como. So thinking about the most relevant designer made the history of this place. And also, in a dialogue with Tiziana, as the new owner of this place, we were thinking Yohji could be amazing. So we tried to figure out if it could be possible to do a project together. Then slowly, we created the project for this space that is a private gallery. It is also a store downstairs, so it is very particular.

Thinking about Yohji, I had this idea to create a letter about the future. I think his message is still so strong right now, especially the relationship with the body. It's a moment still complicated, especially for young people, in the relationship with the body. From one side, there is much more freedom about your body, you can use how you want, but from the other side, there is a lot of judgment because there is this exposure on social media all the time. There is a lot of conflict. Maybe the designer who resolved issues of the body was Yohji in the '80s. This idea to have a space between the body and fashion, textile, this space of soul was so poetic and beautiful and strong right now.

M-C Hill: You think the '80s had a body conversation within society, similar to now? In the 2021-22 trends around what you can show versus what you can't. You think that this is a reflection of a portion of the '80s?

AdN: I think the message of Yohji was so strong in the '80s. In a way, it still resonates at the moment. The key for the exhibition is that this reflection talks about the body, and the body in fashion. All the pieces that you will see are iconic, archival pieces from different collections that changed this relationship.

M-C Hill: So the exhibition will be a narrative of that body conversation?

AdN: Exactly.

M-C Hill: When you think of 10 Corso Como, you think about Azzedine [Alaïa], of Rei Kawakubo. How did you and Tiziana arrive at Yohji? Can you peel that apart?

AdN: Yohji was a very important designer for this place. Thinking about Alaïa and Comme…we want to try to have something poetic that could be a new start. It could be a space to rethink his roots in a new approach. Tiziana and I were both thinking Yohji would be the right one to start the program about fashion.

M-C Hill: How are you staging this conversation? You said you are curating according to a timeline, but what will be the language to understand this? Are you letting the clothes speak for themselves?

AdN: The language will be words of Yohji. So this letter is already written in a way. There are talks of Yohji and pieces from the archive, but also contemporary pieces. Two main topics of the exhibition will be the relationship with the body and time. His relationship with the future exists, but doesn't exist in a way.

M-C Hill: It can be philosophical when he thinks about the future. Sometimes it can be quite bleak, but often communicated in a vague way, thinking about tomorrow, using humour.

AdN: Yes, exactly. So there is a relationship with the body that from one side, is very natural. For him, it is changing every day and being yourself always. From the other side, it is a very philosophical vision of time. This line of time that at the end, doesn't exist. Because the future is the past.

M-C Hill: In terms of time trickling across this exhibition, it comes at a coincidental time for you. The recent fall presentation last month was essentially Yohji's greatest hits, that seductive tailoring.

AdN: In fact, it was really incredible how there is a relationship with the past now. You mean the last collection?

M-C Hill: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...

AdN: Incredible! It's incredible because, in fact, we will have one piece. You will see there is the famous ‘Faux-cul’ piece. It will be central in the exhibition. We will have the original ‘Faux-cul’ from 1986 and the future ‘Faux-cul.’ How these shapes with a new meaning, a new vision, can be the same. You can understand the vision that he has. I think there is one part which is ‘Obscurus,’ or someone who represents that feeling of his use of black, there is something open to interpretation.

M-C Hill: That thought touches on his 2015, 2016, 2017 work in the men's, that carried over to the women's. That interpretive ideology within his work. Remember those vague quotes he started stitching onto the garments in the men's? ‘I Am A Slump,’ right? Then ‘Lord, I’m so happy here. Give me some Compassion,’ woven in the women’s right? You had a highly technical architecture language incorporated under and into the clothes within women's wear, specifically tied to a 2015 collection, those scaffolding constructed garments, right? Protruding from the body in the poetic Yohji way, but it felt modern. So yeah, I am very intrigued to see this exhibition up close to see how things are interpreted as literal, what is left up to the mind and all that. What eras are you looking at to communicate the timeline?

AdN: The selection, you have to imagine as a gallery exhibition. It is one room, big, based on one room. It is thinking like a big installation, all together in a way. We have chosen from the historic collection in which this idea of the universal silhouette is changing. So basically when he completed the construct and rebuilt the silhouette. That period that arrives to 2007. So it's a turning point from the famous ‘Faux-cul,’ the most famous picture of him by Nick Knight. But also when he played with a Western silhouette, in his way. There are also these pieces that are like an homage to Dior and Chanel. So basically from 1986 to 2007.

M-C Hill: Oh God!

AdN: Then there is a dialog between these pieces and the most recent from the last two years. For winter and the previous two collections.

M-C Hill: The fall one with fabric deconstructed as lattice work?

AdN: And the previous winter, too.

M-C Hill: Excellent! You brought up Nick Knight's work with Yohji, will ‘Naomi Green Coat’ series stuff from ‘87 make an appearance?

AdN: No. There are very few pieces from the '80s. From the '80s, we have the most iconic, the rest are more '90s. We have the famous felted piece, that collection of the felt, black and white.

M-C Hill: This is going to be exciting, Alessio.

AdN: The selection was about the silhouette, how it can deconstruct and reconstruct with other materials. Taking elements from the Western fashion to destroy a dam, or rethinking them in completely unusual material in a way.

M-C Hill: Is it over two months?

AdN: Yeah. It will be until the end of July. Think like one big installation. Only black, white and red.

M-C Hill: Red is a big Yohji code, particularly in the womenswear.

AdN: It is called the assonant climate arriving from the black and white to the red. That will be the heart of the exhibition. We are really thinking about the future in red. Literature between body, shapes and words of Yohji because there is also the chapter of this letter. I'm always surprised at how the power of that simplicity, how strong, something so clear, so pure, comes through in everything he does. In fact, we are very focused on the message, to never have too many things around. Every shape and material has to speak to the people in a way.

M-C Hill: You said something about red, in comparing red to the future, a couple seconds ago. Can you expound upon that a bit? How does red represent the future? In Yohji’s work, red usually signifies desire with the woman. So how is red being used here?

AdN: Red is used like the arrival point of this process, of thinking about the future. Imagining this introspection arriving to a truth, a red truth in a way, that is the arrival point. I don't want to tell you everything about the exhibition, but you arrive at this strong group of pieces in red.

M-C Hill: You put together an anti-exhibition, using no rule set to put this whole thing together, right?

AdN: Exactly. It doesn't want any formalism. For me, it is a very artistic approach to represent his work. In a way, this is against any conservative principles. But always there is this spirit of Yohji in terms of relationships about past and future, the fashion of what he does is something alive. If it is from 30 or 40 years ago, that is interesting in terms of putting together an exhibition, thinking with Yohji how to have a result.

M-C Hill: The way you explain the work, you've been possessed a little bit by that Yohji spirit because of the way that you're speaking, the romantic way that you're approaching the exhibition with a metaphysical approach. The language you're using is really nice, like being next to the exhibition.

AdN: From one side, how you say, it has to be metaphysical. These shapes are floating on one side, but from the other side, they are very simple in the presentation. I can't say to touch them because no. You have a feeling that you can touch them because they exist as objects. They don't change into a work of art or a monument of something. They are still in their identity of soulful garments. And this is very interesting to break the rules of fashion curation and the conservatives. In fact, Yohji says in the last interview about the exhibition that he does not like fashion exhibitions.

Yohji Yamamoto. Letter to the Future opens from 16 May to 31 July at 10 Corso Como Gallery